Body's Natural Defenses Can Treat Eczema

The body’s own natural defenses could be harnessed in a potential therapy for a common skin condition. The discovery may help create new treatments for atopic eczema; the condition causes distressing itchy lesions that can lead to broken skin with increased susceptibility to infection. It can have a severe impact on people’s lives, work and sleep. The discovery follows recent studies that show having an intact natural skin barrier is important in preventing eczema. Now, researchers in the UK have found a way to use the body’s own defense system, to repair tiny breaks in the skin’s natural barrier, which make people more vulnerable to eczema. This is a great chance to work with something that the body makes naturally to develop new therapy for atopic eczema, which affects so many people’s lives. The skin’s barrier can be impaired by genetic flaws, environmental factors or bacterial infections. People with eczema are much more likely to carry bacteria known as Staphylococcus aureus on their skins. In people with eczema, these bacteria can infect skin lesions and cause damage to the skin barrier.